Spotted in China: Mercury Capri Convertible

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Spotted in China: Mercury Capri Convertible

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This must be the rarest car we have seen in China so far. A very red Mercury Capri Convertible with a Ford badge on the bonnet. I found it dusty & dirty in the underground parking of Ikea in Beijing.  The Mercury Capri was made from 1989 until 1994 in… Australia.

Spotted in China: Mercury Capri Convertible

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The Capri was completely developed by Ford Australia and big names where asked for help. The exterior was designed by Ghia and the interior by ItalDesign. It was sold as ‘Ford Capri’ in Australia and as ‘Mercury Capri’ in the US. Things are a bit confusing on this particular vehicle because it has a Ford-badge on the bonnet and ‘Mercury’ and ‘Capri’ badges on the back. I think the Ford-badge is added later, check this American Mercury Capri, it’s the same up until the wheel covers.

Spotted in China: Mercury Capri Convertible

The Mercury Capri was based around Mazda 323 mechanics and therefore front-wheel drive. Power came from a 100hp 1.6 or a 132hp 1.6 turbo. The Ikea-car seems to be the base 1.6 model, the 1.6 turbo had some extra plastic and different wheel covers.

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Spotted in China: Mercury Capri Convertible

Black license plate indicating the vehicle was imported by a foreign-funded company, which could import their own cars in the 1980’s and 1990’s. This red convertible must have been a sensation in Beijing when it arrived, in those these the most exciting car around was a Beijing-Jeep Cherokee.

The Mercury brand was never exported to the Chinese market, but the Mercury Villager was actually made in China for a short while, and earlier on we met a first generation Mercury Grand Marquis.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that car anywhere before. I was more surprised to learn that the Mercury Villager was made in China. There is one I often see near where I live in Houshayu and I always thought that was a weird choice of a car to import, seeing how crappy it always was. Now I know…

  2. As far as I am aware, this car was only sold in North America as a Mercury, and in Australia as a Ford. As this car is left-hand-drive, it cannot be Australian specification, which means it must be a North American specification Mercury.

  3. Its got the body colour bumpers which the very first Aust. market models didn’t have (just hideous huge grey things). So yes it must be NA spec, but the badge is in the right spot for an Aust. spec car. interesting little diversion. So many unexpected cars appear to have found their way to China.

  4. This looks like one of the earlier ones. Yes, the badges are as per Australia and some other markets like Singapore, HK, NZ etc that it was also sold in. But those are all RHD markets.

  5. Wheels are stock for pre-’93 model year. LH drive would tend to indicate a US model, I’d guess it as a ’91 … the Ford badge is indeed an enigma.

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